Fairytale
by Niu Shiy-Ue
Summary: Just a retelling of the Uchiha Massacre. Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, not me.


Sasuke has always known there was a monster in the basement. In the day, he could feel it move and breathe beneath his feet. At night, when he came home, he saw its red eyes peek out at him or the flames it breathed lighting up the shadows around the house. Once in a while he could hear its voice, harsh and deep. Sometimes, he heard his father shout at it and the monster would argue back. However, he never heard what they said to each other.

Mommy, before she went out, would always say to him, "Be good, don't give Aunt Uruchi any trouble and stay out of the basement lest the monster eats your heart."

Fugaku-sama (Mother was Mommy, but Father was always Fugaku-sama) would tell him, "There is nothing in your closet nor under your bed. There are no monsters, except the one in the basement." And then he would leave Sasuke alone with his nightmares.

Even the people in the Academy knew about the monster. The kids would tease Sasuke, making up stories of its gruesome appearance and daring him to go and look at it. The teachers would sigh and stop them, then Iruka-sensei would take Sasuke aside and warn him, "Never, ever let the monster out. If you do, it will kill everyone."

The monster had been there for as long as Sasuke could remember.

When Sasuke was five years old, he decided he would go downstairs and see the monster for himself. That's when he met the ghosts. The first one he encountered was screaming shade of a boy, about thirteen, with only half a face and a gaping hole where one of his eyes should have been, that cried tears of blood. The other was a man, pale and cold, dripping like a fish from the river that ran through the village. He whispered of power in Sasuke's ear, tainted secrets of his family.

It took courage, but Sasuke finally made it to the bottom of that endless stairway. However, when he got there, he didn't find a monster. Only a boy, maybe twice his age, maybe older, with a tired face and long hair, chained to the wall. He looked up at Sasuke with dull, indifferent eyes. "Why are you here?" he asked the little boy.

"They s-say," he swallowed and began again. "They say there's a m-monster who lives here. B-but I only s-see you."

"A monster," mused the older boy. "Is that what they told you?"

"Y-yes"

"Do you see a monster here?"

"N-no. Only y-you."

The long-haired boy shifted in his chains. "Can you remove these for me?"

Sasuke tried, but his fingers were too clumsy to pick locks, his arms too weak to break links. So instead, he brought the boy some food and water, and told him how his day was. The other thanked him for the food and listened and smiled at Sasuke the way no one in the family ever had. And it became a routine. Whenever Sasuke could, he'd come downstairs, slipping past the two ghosts, with something for the other to eat and drink and he would talk about the outside world. The other would listen, smile and give advice. And the boy in the basement became Sasuke's first friend.

When Sasuke was seven, the boy had an odd request. "Give me your heart." he asked.

"My heart?"

"Something to keep me warm in the dark. Something for me to remember you by."

"I don't know how." So the boy told him and Sasuke carefully cut open his chest and pulled out a shining red jewel and gave it to the chained boy who smiled and hid the jewel in his clothes.

It felt odd to live without a heart, but Sasuke got used to it. And other than a slight ache in his chest, whenever his father ignored him or when his uncles and cousins belittled him, nothing else changed at all. Until one day, when Sasuke was almost eight . . .

He came home late that day. The full moon was already high in the sky and Sasuke knew he was going to be in trouble. He came across a massacre.

Everyone he knew, lying in dark pools, unmoving-unliving. Silence and blood, so thick in the air he thought he was choking with each breath. And when he finally reached his house . . .

The boy, the boy who had been chained in the basement stood there, over the still bodies of his parents. In his hands he held a katana, filthy with blood. "Why?" screamed the little boy. "Why did you do this? I did everything you asked, I even gave you my heart!"

The other looked at him impassively. "I never said there wasn't a monster in the basement." He stepped foreward then knelt down in front of Sasuke. "Do you want your heart back? There's only one way to do so."

He then kissed Sasuke, forcing something hard and cold down his throat. Sasuke felt the thing that the monster made him swallow falling into the empty space where his heart used to be. It lodged there and spread out tentacles, cold and dark and powerful, throughout his body. Then the monster stood up and showed Sasuke a necklace upon which he'd strung Sasuke's heart. The monster raised the heart and ate it in front of Sasuke, swallowing the red jewel whole. "Foolish little brother, run away and live. Hate me and detest me. And some day, grow strong enough to tear your heart out of my body." And the monster turned away and left Sasuke there.

And Sasuke ran and cried and slept and awakened and grieved and eventually did grow stronger. But that is another story entirely.


End file.
